Will the Odds Ever Be in Their Favor? The 54th Annual Hunger Games
by BrazilianLOTRFan
Summary: "Here your dreams are sweet & tomorrow brings them true.Here's the place where I love you"Falling apart isn't something we choose to,however,it's inevitable when you're left to fight to the death with 23 others. At the arena,there are 24 dreams at stake,but only one's will come true. After 53 years of that,it will eventually get repetitive,just like a Game.*SYOT 18/24 spots taken*
1. D9-The odds are not in their favor

**Hey there, I'm new to this fandom and really wanted to write a SYOT with a kind of a shine for District 9, because according to many sites I've been researching, it's the district which is less spoken about in the entire series (yes, I've read the three books more than twice). However, it will not focus only in this district's tributes, I just decided to start with D9.**

**_May the odds be ever in your favor._**

* * *

My eyes are shut hard while I try to get the minimum of sleep I possibly can. But there's no use. There's no way I would get any sleep. Not today. Not at the day of my first reaping.

Honestly, I prefer not to sleep at all other than face horrible nightmares featuring me inside the arena with vicious and ruthless young killers, or even, seeing my older brother being beheaded or worse.

I decide that is not worthy to try to sleep any longer, since the reaping starts at 10. It's probably somewhere around 7 a.m. and my family is still sleeping. I wonder if they're actually sleeping or just faking.

Since it's the reaping day, neither my father nor brother will need to work as grain processing factory workers today. The reaping is supposed to be a festivity where all of us celebrate the 'courage' of one boy and one girl who will most likely die.

It fills my heart with dread just to imagine that my name will be in the big glass ball with all the district girl's names. Being twelve, my name will only be entered once, but that still frightens me a lot. My brother had to ensure that I wouldn't get any tesserae, I mean, we don't need food that desperately. It's not impossible, but very unlikely for me to be drawn. Still, the simple thought of the 'what if?' makes me sick. Only then I drift my thoughts to my eighteen year old brother, Garric, who has his in name 7 times. I greatly admire my brother, because even with our father working long hours at the factory, he took a job as well, to help us live a bit better, since our mother died while giving birth to our younger sister Blye, ten years ago.

I finally get up from my bed and quietly go to the front window of our little house. I start walking really slowly and quietly, not to wake up Blye, who's still sleeping at the other side of the same bed I slept in.

My sister sleeps peacefully while I don't have the courage to do so. That makes me wonder if Blye is actually afraid that either Garric or I will be picked to die. Ten-year-old Blye always has the most optimistic attitude of the whole family, finding beauty in everything and always saying that things will get better for us. Sometimes she is too optimistic for my taste. Of course, a little hope of a better tomorrow is always helpful. It makes me forget about how scared I am.

I look at the closed window which reveals the morning sun. One of the only things I like about living in District 9 is when the sun has already risen and we're able to see it illuminating the giant grain fields of our district, and make the field look like they are made of pure gold. District 9 is basically an urban mass of houses and apartments surrounded by grain fields. Plain and simple. No trees, no grass, only concrete and grains.

"Good morning, Claire." I hear my sister's sleepy voice behind me.

"Good morning, little one." I turn around to face her. Her wavy chin-length brown hair is all over her face and it's difficult to see her big blue eyes. The only thing besides the last name that both of us share.

"I'm not little, you know that. You're only two years older than me!" She exclaimed, looking directly into my eyes. She's only some centimeters shorter than me, ten perhaps. Also, she's wearing a simple white nightdress up to her ankles that belonged to our mother. Blye never sleeps without it.

Garric told me that when Mother died, he and Father were going to sell her clothes, but they never could. Nobody was interested in buying them, but that didn't affect us so much. This happened because we aren't as poor as the majority of the district's population is, we live fairly well, having all the meals of the day (not enough for us to be completely filled, but still, we're a very lucky family), thanks to my brother and father's effort.

"C'mon, I'll make you some tea, how about that?" I said, with my kindest voice possible. I'm very kind with people in general, because I honestly think that kindness is something our district lacks, and it's completely free, which makes me even happier to use it. Although I turn rather cold when the reaping approaches, in fear that someone I love will be taken from me and be brutally killed at a terrifying arena.

"Yeah, I would like that." Blye replied with a smile. A small smile appeared in my face when I took a glimpse of her two front teeth beginning to grow.

It's about 8:30 when my father and brother wake up to join Blye and me at the table for breakfast.

Breakfast at District 9 consists in having a little bread with some grains inside which we share. None of us talk during the meal.

I always notice at this time of the day how much Garric and my father look alike. The same brown hair and eyes. I'm the only one in my living family who has dark hair and blue eyes. Garric often says that I look like the porcelain dolls at the toy store close to the town square because of my delicate body structure and very white skin.

"It will be okay, Claire. You don't need to worry about anything." Garric's warm brown eyes stare at me. I can't help it but smile at him. My big brother. The one who protects me of the dangers of the district. District 9's Peacekeepers are very brutal. They get angered quite easily and whipping is not very uncommon. "I'm going to be with you."

When I was five, I would spit a lot of things out about the horrible Hunger Games. That was around the time when my cousin was beheaded in the Games she was forced to go. Jadelyn was her name, and she used to live with us when her mother died of pneumonia. Despite having a big gap of age between us, we were always very close and we looked a lot alike, same eyes, same porcelain skin and same dark hair. I missed her a lot and didn't quite understand why she was taken away from us. Later, I understood everything behind the Hunger Games.

It shocked me a lot to see her die in such a brutal way. I was just a little five-year-old girl, frightened to see those horrible scenes on nationwide television. I didn't like to see strangers die that way, but when it was my cousin, I didn't sleep for two entire weeks. I'm still trying to recover from that.

What made me even more furious with the world was that the tribute who killed my cousin won the Games that year. District 1. And when the Victor Tour happened and the said tribute visited my district…. I almost got my father scared to death because of the horrible things I was spitting out.

Then, I decided to put on a 'weak and helpless girl' mask to cover up my fury. And believe me, it works pretty well.

After breakfast, my father hands me a simple pink dress, which I assume that belonged to my dead cousin. Afterall, she was 14 when she died. The dress fits me well, though it's a little big for me. I look at the broken mirror at the back of the door of my room and keep staring at the image of the thin girl who just turned twelve. The girl who looks so much like her cousin who died at the Games. The girl who has absolutely no chance of survival if her name is drawn. I've never been a lucky person, really, but that's different. You need more than luck to win the Games, you need strength, something I don't have.

Blye is learning how to braid hair, so I let her practice in my hair, though there's almost no hair for her to practice, since it ends at my shoulders.

When she finishes her 'braid' in my hair, she makes me stand up and look at the mirror. The braid is not perfect, but it's nice. I would never destroy it, even if it's not perfect. I'm still going to look nice if I'm going to be shown to entire Panem.

"Your hair is beautiful, Claire." She told me. I still refuse to look at the mirror. I'm scared that I'll see my dead cousin's image instead of my own. "I wish I had it."

"You're the pretty one." I said, with tearful eyes. No, I'm not emotional because of how pretty my sister is (which is true, she's really pretty), but because of the terrifying hours to come. I'm shivering. I have one hour before the reaping. Being reaped at the age of twelve is probably one of the worse nightmares one can possibly have. Absolutely no chance of survival.

Blye was wearing one of my old dresses, a white one with pink stripes. She has two pink ribbons in her brown hair, making two pigtails, when she hugs me; my chin rests on top of her head.

"I say that both of you look very pretty." Garric enters the room and hugs us both. "Look, Claire, you'll not be reaped, alright? I was like that on my first reaping too. You have nothing to be afraid of." He looked at me and gave me a very small reassuring smile while he caressed my braided hair.

"I don't want to end up like Jadelyn." I sobbed into his grey shirt.

"You won't, trust me." He whispered.

I let go of him and the three of us lead to the kitchen to meet our father and to go to the town square where the reaping will be held. Father closed the house' door after we all were outside. I can't hold my trembling any longer as we start to walk at the sidewalks of our grey district. No nature is seen except the grain plains that we can only see at a distance. People at the streets are going to the square at a very slow pace, like that was somehow going to prevent them from attending the reaping ceremony. Of course, as we all know that if you don't show up at the reaping and you're perfectly healthy, you're arrested. District 9's Peacekeepers really enjoy arresting people who don't show up at the reaping.

That is not very uncommon, mothers and fathers who have their children taken from them to join the Games often don't show up at the next year's reaping, however, they always get arrested by soulless Peacekeepers.

My trembling hand holds both my father's and Garric's. The horror is about to start. In less than 30 minutes, one boy and one girl will be going to their deaths. Hopefully, I'm not going to be one of them. Just like the annoying Capitol people tell us before the names are drawn: 'May the odds be ever in your favor!'. We can clearly observe the irony. The odds are never in favor of anyone of the tributes who don't train their entire lives for the Hunger Games. Just like District 9's tributes, who normally don't last long. We had three Victors in the 53 years of Games. All of them are alive, although the oldest of them is currently mad and screams at every shadow he sees. He won the Games before I was even born, (probably around the time my father was Garric's age) so he is suffering a lot, I suppose. Suffering because of the rebellion. 23 children are murdered each year because of something that happened more than 50 years ago. The Victor always get some psychological damage, so, nobody actually wins the Games. And once you enter the arena, you never come out again. That works for the Victor as well, who will have nightmares and traumas for the rest of his/her lives.

Our most recent Victor was crowned 5 years ago. Sorena Pyrmont, a girl aged 18 who hid the entire time until there was only her and a boy from District 4 remaining. She then hid in a tree and dropped her bag filled with rocks at the District 4's boy tribute head, killing him instantly.

She doesn't appear in public except for the reaping. I wonder what she does in her free time.

There I was, being led to the station where they would take my record. I bravely let go of my father's hand and make my way with Garric to the Capitol's workers.

"What they're going to do?" I asked.

"They're only going to collect your blood, no big deal really." He chuckled lightly. Garric is always laughing and joking around. That is part of his nature, and that really makes me lighter. I finally let go of Garric when the attendant yells 'NEXT!'.

"Give me your hand." The man demands. Reluctantly, I hand him my left hand. My finger is pinched and pressed to a piece of paper. I will admit, it did hurt a little. The man then gets a machine that scans my blood, the words 'Keene, Claire' appear on it.

Finally, I'm led to the back of the crowd, where the twelve years old are all gathered. I can barely see the stage, the only thing I see is a man wearing bright neon yellow shirt, with bright red pants, standing next to two big glass balls which contains the names of all of District 9's citizens from twelve to eighteen years old. Two of them will be picked. I shiver.

Someone pokes my right shoulder, I turn around and I see that it's an old friend of mine and my neighbor, a girl with bright fiery curls and crystal blue eyes.

"Good luck, Claire." She whispered.

"Good luck for you two, Tressa." I whisper back, forcing a small smile.

"Ladies and gentleman, prepare for the 54th annual Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor!" The neon-man exclaimed loudly, he doesn't try to contain the excitement in his voice. I glance at the eighteen year olds section to spot Garric…There he is, chatting nervously with one of his friends. "Before we get to know who will be the lucky young man and woman who will have the honor to represent District 9 in the Hunger Games, we'll see a very special movie brought to you from the great Capitol!"

The man makes me sick. All the Capitol people make me sick. They _enjoy _watching children die each year. They bet on their favorites, they simply cheer when a tribute is killed brutally. That's sick.

"I would really want to borrow the man's outfit someday." Tressa said quietly. Tress is a really funny girl, however, she should be even more scared than I am, her name is inside the ball four times because of the tessarae. She doesn't hate me for having less pieces of paper with my name written on just because I don't need the extra supply of grains and oil. Sometimes, Tress is one of the happiest people I know. I can't help but giggle at her. Despite my tension, and fear, I smile at my friend.

The stupid and unnecessary video clip started to play. I can't see anything because of my size, but I can clearly hear the deep voice narrating it, telling us about the Treaty of Treason and this things. I doubt that anyone even pays attention at this.

"I really love that! It's my favorite part of the reaping right after the part in which the tributes are chosen!" Neon-man exclaimed. His voice is deeply annoying. Anyway, what else there is to see at the reaping other than watching the unlucky pair of tributes being drawn and this stupid movie? "Let's choose our tributes! Ladies first! Any volunteers?"

No one moved. District 9 never had a volunteer in the last 40 years. I know that at Districts 1,2 and 4 it's almost dangerous to volunteer.

Neon-man started to walk on the direction of the globe which contains District 9 girl's names. One of them contains the name Claire Keene. Four of them contains Tressa's name. I close my eyes, hold my breath and hold Tress' hand tightly.

"Ladies and gentleman, the lucky girl who's having the honor to represent District 9 in the 54th Hunger Games is…." I think I'm about to break Tress' fingers with the tight grip I'm giving in her hand. "Dramatic pause here!" Please, please, please, please…. "A round of applause for our girl tribute: Claire Keene!"

No, it can't be me. There must be some kind of mistake. I open my eyes and find everyone staring at me. Also, everyone is standing in a radius of 2 meters away from me, except for Tress, whose hand I'm still holding very tightly. I'm going to cry. I don't want to die. I'm frightened. I know that I'm even paler than usual, and all of the Capitol's cameras are on me now. I can't cry. Not now.

"Come, my dear, don't be afraid! There's nothing to be afraid of!" Neon-man hurried me. I'm petrified. I can hardly move. I look around at people, eying nervously at everyone, hoping someone would volunteer for me. Who would? Who would rather die instead of a hopeless twelve year old girl? No one. I just need to accept the fact that I will die in less than a week, but that idea is far from my imagination, I still can't believe that I'll die at this young age.

I let go of Tress' hand and make my way to the stage. Tress is sobbing. I hear Blye's neurotic screams, but I won't look at her. I hope Father can manage to control her. Now, I need to be brave for them.

When I get to the stage, I noticed that Neon-man is wearing a pair of bright green neon shoes. This man only makes everything worse.

"Congratulations to you, my dear!" He patted me in the back as I stood beside him, like being in the Hunger Games was some prize. I feel like I'm even smaller than I am actually. "Now, ladies and gentleman, let's meet our boy tribute for District 9! Any volunteers?"

Of course not. Again, I don't blame Garric for not volunteering, because I will not make it alive, and he probably wouldn't as well. That would only cause more pain and disgrace for Father and Blye.

The man happily skips to the boy's ball and I hold my breath once again. I know that the cameras are on him now, so I let a little tear stream down my face. I spot Garric at the eighteen year old boy's section. He smiles faintly at me. How can he? Is he trying to help me remain strong? I wipe out the tear from my cheek.

"Ladies and gentleman, the boy tribute of the 54th annual Hunger Games is…"

I glance at Garric once more, and he's still faintly smiling at me. When the name is called, his smile disappears along with all of the color of his face. I bet that I'm whiter now than before I had heard the unlucky boy's name who will compete against me:

"Garric Keene."

* * *

**I'm planning to write a reaping chapter for each district's tributes that I receive. Please, be specific, realistic and the most important of all, creative!**

**To submit your tribute, follow these steps. Either PM-ing or reviewing with your tribute is fine.**

Name:

Age:

Gender:

District (Top 3 Choices):

Appearance (be realistic please):

Celebrity Look-a-like:

Height:

Weight:

Personality (Three sentences or more):

Background (Three sentences or more):

Family:

Friends:

Reaped/ Volunteer (If you plan on making a non-Career volunteer, please private message me beforehand):

Reaction/ Reasoning (If they are volunteering, both are required):

Token:

Strengths (nobody is _that _incompetent not too have a strenght):

Weaknesses (everybody has a weakness):

Weapon of Choice:

**I look forward to write about your tributes!**


	2. Tribute List!

**Hello there! Here I have the list of the tributes until now. I would be happy to have all of the tributes by Saturday so I could start with the Reapings in order of District (well, except for District 9. I hope you liked my sibling pair from 9 from Chapter 1). **

**I own the sibling pair from 9, the SYOT tributes belong to those who created them and everything to do with Panem and the Hunger Games are not my property.**

**_May the odds be ever in your favor._**

* * *

District 1 (Luxury)

Male- Sheen Styles, 18 (Flintlightning)

Female- Jemima Rachel Foster, 16 (Emmeline C. Thornbrooke)

District 2 (Masonry)

Male- Kutar Telond, 18 (SilverVoltage547)

Female- Envy Slate, 18 (MidnightRaven323)

District 3 (Technology)

Male- Aston Emory, 15 (ThornyRoseIsTrue)

Female- OPEN!

District 4 (Fishing)

Male- Adam Charleston, 17 (Maid of Sherwood)

Female- Relik Kortel, 17 (SilverVoltage547)

District 5 (Power)

Male- OPEN!

Female- OPEN!

District 6 (Transportation)

Male- OPEN!

Female- OPEN!

District 7 (Lumber)

Male- OPEN!

Female- Juniper Fairbane, 17 (Avara427)

District 8 (Textiles)

Male- OPEN!

Female- OPEN!

District 9 (Grain)

Male- Garric Keene, 18 (BrazilianLOTRFan)

Female- Claire Keene, 12 (BrazilianLOTRFan)

District 10 (Livestock)

Male- Orion Gedney, 15 (ilikecakeandcookies)

Female- Sapphire Wayler, 15 (Lady of the Witty)

District 11 (Agriculture)

Male- Vaught Sern, 13 (Avara427)

Female- Clarissa Keys, 13 (Lady of the Witty)

District 12 (Coal)

Male- Peter Simmons, 16 (Maid of Sherwood)

Female- Kalilea Wood, 13 (Epicness by Liv)

* * *

Submit your tribute using this guide.

**Name:**

**Age:**

**Gender:**

**District (Top three choices):**

**Weapon of Choice (either something psychological or concrete) :**

**Appearance (Be realistic please, no purple eyes and pink hair, tributes are not from the Capitol!):**

**Height:**

**Personality (Three sentences or more):**

**Background (Three sentences or more):**

**Family/Friends (Explain relationship a little):**

**Reaction/Reasoning:**

**Strengths (nobody is that incompetent not to have a strength. Max 4):**

**Weaknesses (Everybody has a weakness. Minimum is 2):**

* * *

Haven't had enough time to create a realistic tribute? No problem, just review or PM me reserving a spot so you can plan a bit more!

You can either review with your tribute or PM me. Feel free to be creative and you can submit more than one tribute if you want.

WARNING! I need at least 7 characters to die at the bloodbath.

Happy Hunger Games!


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